The dawn of the Boden family

Aug 20 2007 by Hannah Davies, The Journal

Vicky Pepys is present at the birth of a new Boden Baby.

IF you’re on the Boden mailing list, a new arrival will be dropping on to your doormat soon, Boden Baby.

Way back in 1994, Johnnie Boden decided to add womenswear to his existing (small) menswear line and is quoted as saying: “I should have thought about doing it sooner.”

The same thought must surely have occurred to him when childrenswear launched in 1996. If his gut feeling is correct about how the public will take to Boden babies, then he’s right on track yet again.

If ever there was a look that translates so successfully from the youngest and smallest family member to the oldest and largest, then this is it. The dawn of the Boden family.

“We ran a small test of baby clothing in 2000,” says Boden marketing director Mark Binnington. “Although it was successful, we were a much smaller business with a much smaller range.

“We felt it was best to focus our efforts on expanding the Mini Boden range (ages two-14 years). We decided to focus on offering it down to six months.

“Now we are bigger and having success in the USA with Mini Boden, we felt it was the right time to re-introduce a specific baby range.”

With success and a much wider audience comes some criticism, but then everything “popular” has its detractors.

Boden is often criticised for its “niceness” if anything, much of which is its signature aspirational photographic styling and its contribution to the cliché of a “yummy mummy” who is so often depicted dressed in Boden.

Others say there’s a danger you’ll see others wearing the same distinctive styles.

“We are deliberately limiting our availability to create inclusivity,” adds Mark. “Some items sell much better than we expect. However, all our clothing is limited in so far as its only ever available for that season only and once its gone, its gone.”

As a business, Boden suffers little from derogatory comments and diffuses most by posting them on a special section of the website. It makes for an amusing read.

The ranges certainly don’t deserve criticism; they are too well made from quality fabrics with an extraordinary shelf life.

The new baby range with its core ‘baggies’ trousers are extremely sensible; life at that age is spent largely on one’s bottom after all. The appeal to purchasing adults is surely they don’t want their offspring to be covered in logos.

Children are lots of things but not advertising hoardings. In time, when these babies have a say in what they wear, they’ll see Boden is as grown up as they are.